Evaluation of drought tolerance in winter barley using different screening techniques.

Drought, considered as the combination of water stress plus high irradiance and temperature stresses, is the main abiotic factor limiting yield. The improvement of the yields under drought conditions therefore must combine the high yield potential and specific factors which are able to protect the crop against reduction due to this stress conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the drought tolerance of 23 Romanian and foreign winter barley cultivars using different screening techniques: excised leaf water loss, leaf relative water content, pollen deformation rate after osmotic stress using polyethylene glycol. Considering the appreciations of the four used techniques, the highest drought tolerance was presented by cultivars: Salemer, Secura, Compact, Adi, Dana. An pronounced sensibility for hydric stress was observed in cultivars: Precoce, Orizont, Andrei, Pfyner, Manitou.